Friday, 18 August

National Student Survey results published

The results of the 2017 National Student Survey (NSS) have been published today and show overall satisfaction of 84.1% nationally. Changes to the survey this year mean that the results are not directly comparable to last year.

Together with a number of other higher education institutions across the country, the University of Liverpool’s overall satisfaction result and most subject-level results have not met the threshold 50% return rate for publication.

Results from those subject areas which did receive a response rate of over 50% show some areas of particularly high satisfaction. Overall student satisfaction with: ophthalmics; anatomy, physiology and pathology; and genetics are all at 100%, whilst accounting, nursing and planning students registered average overall satisfaction scores of 92% or 93%.

Student feedback

The NSS is commissioned annually by the Higher Education Council for England (HEFCE) to invite students’ feedback about their courses. The results are used by the University to help improve student experience. In the past, the University introduced a range of new initiatives in response to feedback received through the survey, including lower printing costs, lecture-capture technology and our Library on Tour scheme.

Professor Gavin Brown, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, said: “The University respects the right of students to choose not to complete the survey, however it is the biggest independent measure of student satisfaction and provides us with valuable information about how we can improve students’ experience here.

“We’ve received all of the feedback our students shared through the survey, including the data that wasn’t published because of the low return rate, and we’ll be carefully considering it to help ensure we provide the best possible learning environment at Liverpool. Maximising student participation in the NSS remains important to us so that we learn as much as we can about student satisfaction across our programmes.”

Guild

Like a number of other universities, Liverpool experienced a lower participation rate in the NSS this year following a preferendum held by the Guild which led to many students not completing the survey due to its links with the Teaching Excellence Framework. This resulted in a smaller percentage of Liverpool students taking part this year (43%) compared to last year (76%).